


One Good Turn

by Lirillith



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-19
Updated: 2013-10-19
Packaged: 2017-12-29 20:24:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1009688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/pseuds/Lirillith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes family kind of sneaks up on you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Good Turn

    “Why California?” Kotetsu asked.  
      
    “Why not?  Seems like a good place to live.  I can try to break into the hero business or showbiz, either one, and speakin’ Spanish can’t hurt either.  Weather’s nice out there.  What’s not to like?”  
      
    “The fact we’re out here,” Kotetsu grumbled.    
      
    “We’re going to miss you, you giant slab of beef,” Tomoe added.  
      
    “Yeah, I can tell, the way you both whisper sweet nothings in my ear,” he said, grinning at them.    
      
    “You better keep in touch,” Kotetsu said, ominously.  “Or else.”  
      
    “Or else what?  Yeah, I promise.  You two take care of each other, okay?”  
      
       
      
    They were sitting on the porch of Antonio’s parents’ house, watching the sunset paint the mountains gold, and it occurred to Antonio he could always take back what he’d just said. He could easily buy a house here with the money he had saved from his stint in California; start up a little business or something. His brothers had ideas they wanted him to come in on, enough ideas to spend up all his savings twice over. But he’d said it, _move to Stern Bild,_ and Muramasa was watching him thoughtfully.  
      
    “If you do, keep an eye on Kotetsu and the family for us, would you?”  
      
    “You got it,” Antonio said. “Keep an eye on them. No promises about reining Kotetsu in or anything.”  
      
    “I’m not asking for miracles,” Muramasa said, and they both laughed.   
      
       
      
    The light spilling in from the window didn’t alter the fluorescent pallor of a hospital room; it was like all of Antonio’s worst memories in one place, his grandmother’s death, and school, and his own hospital stays for injuries. And this was worse, because Tomoe was _young_ , dammit, a civilian; she didn’t belong here for any reason other than a second baby.  
      
    But here she was, the bones of her wrists visible, the dark circles under her eyes the most vivid thing about her. There was a family photo on the table by her bed, there were flowers and get-well cards; the whole room acknowledged she was stuck here for the foreseeable future, and it made him want to break walls, but instead he held her hand very carefully, and said, “I’m not makin’ any promises that sound like you’re not gonna be around to enforce ‘em, you hear me?”  
      
    She smiled. “Then think of it like this. You’re taking care of Kotetsu and Kaede while I’m stuck in here, all right? Just don’t let him be too alone, and Kaede—” Her voice broke a little. “Once I get out, you’re off the hook.”  
      
    “Okay,” he said, feeling his eyes sting. Survival rates. She had, what, a twenty-percent chance of living three years? He was just bullshitting, acting like she’d make it; Kotetsu had admitted to him, drunk and not even crying, just kind of hopeless and hollow-sounding, that all she wanted was to live to see Kaede start school. “Okay. It’s a deal.”   
  
  
  
  
    “If I don’t make it, take care of Kaede for me,” Kotetsu said, and he was off before Antonio even had a chance to respond. This little girl he hadn’t seen in six years, who wouldn’t even remember him — what the hell could he do for her besides put her on the next bus home?  
      
    He couldn’t even do that. He was one of the last to go down, watching that black and red robot-Kotetsu pick off all the others, and he still couldn’t stop the damn thing; all he could do was stop blocking Kaede so when it sent him flying he wouldn’t hit her.  
  
  
  
    Kotetsu’s finally said it — once you know what he’s been hiding, it’s easy to figure out how long he’s been hiding it — and it’s going to be out on VueTube and Pwitter before Apollon can get a formal statement together.  Antonio spotted the people with their cell phones out.  Kind of nice, in a way, that Kotetsu can give his bosses the finger one final time.    
  
    Kotetsu’s retiring, the one guy who always wanted to be a hero; Kotetsu’s losing his powers, which Antonio, for one, never even knew could happen.  They got trounced by robots twice, spent who knows how long tonight locked up with bombs around their necks, and Antonio’s not quite the only one whose hand moved toward the button that’d get himself out at everyone else’s expense.  And Kotetsu’s retiring, moving back home.  Blue Rose is crying right now on Fire Emblem’s shoulder, and Antonio’s throat is tight and his eyes sting, but the EMTs are making Kotetsu lie down on the gurney and there’s some fuss about whether or not Kaede can come along.    
  
    “I’ll drive her there,” Antonio says.  Barnaby’s already in the back of the ambulance, being helped off with his armor by an EMT who’s smiling a lot more than they normally do.  Starstruck, probably.  It’s a safe bet with Barnaby.  
  
    “You know the way?” Kotetsu asks.  
  
    “You kidding?  As many times as you’ve gotten banged up?”  He has to clear his throat.  It’s the same hospital Tomoe was in.  “I know it like the back of my hand.”  
  
    Kaede’s looking between them, a little apprehensively, and Antonio adds, “Do the other half of the introduction, Kotetsu.  All she knows is that I’m Rock Bison.”  
  
    “Yeah, yeah.  Kaede, this big, homely slab of granite is your uncle Antonio.  He’s known you since you were just a baby.”  
  
    “Just a blob on the ultrasound,” Antonio says, his voice coming out kind of gruff.  Kotetsu had emailed him this gray blur like he was supposed to be able to make sense of it, and Tomoe had put him on speaker phone the next day so they could make fun of her husband together.  Kaede smiles uncertainly, trying to be polite about the grown-ups’ reminscing, and that seems to be Kotetsu’s cue to lay back down on the gurney, while Antonio’s still getting his voice ready to be used again.  “Uncle, huh?”  
  
    “What else you want her to call you? Grandpa?”   
  
    “Shut up and do what the nice paramedics tell you, son.”


End file.
